Cottage Love

I absolutely adore this Greek revival cottage, don't you? Small is beautiful.
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Lavender Fields Forever

Here's your daily dose of aroma therapy. Focus on the picture and inhale. Doesn't all that lavender in Sonoma California smell wonderful? I feel so relaxed now. Just beautiful.
lavender fields




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Exhausted Last Night

This is how I felt last night when I fell into bed (without the kittens) after working outside all afternoon. I finished what I set out to do and didn't come in until 6:15 pm. The gravel is all back in the driveway too. Even if it snows again I will not have it plowed. What a job. I found some maverick snowdrops in the woods where I dump my weeding. I dug them up and started another bed right beside the front door. They are perky and happy this morning.

I was tired but managed to stay awake to watch a recorded movie ~ Captains Courageous with Spencer Tracy as a very young man. It was wonderful. It's cloudy and two rainstorms are coming my way so I have to clean out my trenches this morning. Have a great day, Rosemary.


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Easter Bunny Boot Camp

Easter is on April 4th this year. Only a little over 3 weeks for the Easter Bunny and his helpers to get in shape. Woohoooooo!

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Green Pound Cake for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is March 17th so you have one whole week to buy the ingredients to make this green pound cake. The recipe makes two loaves. You probably have all of the ingredients on hand right now. The only things I don't have are buttermilk and avocado. Actually, I do have one avocado but need another one to make 1-1/2 cups. Market day is today so I'll buy several more. This looks good and the green color is natural without the addition of food coloring. Pistachio ice cream is green, isn't it? That would be good on the side. Yum. Everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's Day.
Avocado Pound Cake
I think I'll eliminate one cup of sugar. I don't like things that are too sweet. I'm sure that won't make a difference in the baking chemistry, will it?

Irving Penn Exhibit | National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery - Irving Penn
I love the portrait of Alfred Hitchcock, don't you? The Marlene Dietrich portrait is circa 1948. Catch this exhibit if you're in London between now and June 6th. It looks wonderful. Rosemary




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A Peek Inside My Cottage

I did a major clean in my living room yesterday. While sitting on the sofa last night enjoying the fruits of my labor, I snapped this lowlight shot. I only have two public rooms in the cottage and each has windows and doors looking out on both the front and the back. I do love a house that is one room wide. They are the kitchen and the multi-purpose room I call the living room. It has a fireplace and enclosed staircases going to the lower level and upstairs to my studio. The view to the front is ground level and the back is on the second floor since my house is on a slope. I have a balcony outside the two French doors on either side of this early ladderback chair. Night photos are best because the windows still haven't been washed. Big rains are coming so I left that task until later. I'm going to work outside and try to get a grip on all that gravel outside the confines of the driveway before it gets too wet. Mud season, here we come. Actually I need a few rainy days so I can do my taxes.




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Come In And See The Kitchens

I like all of these kitchens for one reason or another. Not too big...just right. Like the quirky cabinet arrangement in the first one, the pebble floor in the second, the open shelves and marble island in the third, and every single thing in the fourth one...you know I love a galley kitchen.


Images from desiretoinspire.net


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Barred Owl Portrait

I live next to parkland that is the habitat for Barred Owls. I have never seen one but I hear them at night. Whooo, whooo. I love the sound.


Barred Owl


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Geraniums and Snowdrops (Galanthus species)

One of my pink geraniums started blooming this week and the snowdrops are coming up outside. Things are beginning to look a lot like spring. Almost all of my snow is melted and everything looks pretty good. I keep the sticks picked up on a regular basis. The driveway is the biggest problem with lots of gravel in the grass from being pushed there by the plow. Oh well, it could be worse. Is it safe to start cleanup? I remember that we had the coldest weather of the winter last March. I really don't think that will be the case this year, do you.

If you want to know more about snowdrops, go here. I've never had a bit of trouble growing them. They are trouble free here in the northeast.




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Wonderful Interior Design Photography

John Merkl has a wonderful website to showcase his photography talents. Should you visit, you'll be happy you did. Fabulous shots of babies too.




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Library at Dunrobin Castle In Scotland

The 189-room Dunrobin Castle has been home to the dukes of Sutherland for over 800 years. The sycamore paneled library was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, a noted Scottish architect, from spaces formerly used as a bedroom and a dressing room. There are over ten thousand books, many of them relating to Scots law and to nineteenth-century Highland development.

I photographed the first two pictures from one of my architectural books. The third photo is from Wikipedia.

I'll copy a bit of the castle's description from my 1990 book: "Dunrobin Castle is the largest house in the Northern Highlands of Scotland, and is the seat of the Countess of Sutherland. Parts of the castle date from the early 1400s, but it is the early-nineteenth-century Clearances, during which five thousand people were removed from Sutherland lands, that made the estate notorious. This mass eviction of small subsistence farmers appalled some Scottish journalists because of the lack of publicity that attended it."

"Today, although Dunrobin is still known as the site of some of the harshest episodes of clearance, it is also a remarkable showplace, filled with important collections and mementos of the family and of royal visits."




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Great Eyeglass Frames

I like these frames from Kate Spade and they are only $68.00. They are reading glasses but they look like a quality pair that you can use for prescription glasses. As you might remember I'm long overdue for my eye exam and the search for frames has begun. I like these being worn by Diane Keaton too.




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